Zabdiel Adams (November 5, 1739 – March 1, 1801), minister of

Lunenburg, Massachusetts Lunenburg is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,946 at the 2020 census. History Lunenburg was first settled by Europeans in 1718 and was officially incorporated in 1728. The name stems from one of t ...

, was born in Braintree, now Quincy. His father was the uncle of

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of t ...

, second President of the United States. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1759. He was ordained September 5, 1764.

History

Adams was eminent as a

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

of the

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

, "often explaining the most important doctrines in a rational and scriptural manner, and enforcing them with plainness and pungency. His language was nervous, and while in his public performances he gave instruction he also imparted pleasure. In his addresses to the throne of grace he was remarkable for pertinency of thought and readiness of utterance. Though by bodily constitution he was liable to irritation, yet he held no ill will. His heart was easily touched by the afflictions of others and his sympathy and benevolence prompted him to administer relief, when in his power." About the year 1774, he wrote a pamphlet maintaining, without authority from the Cambridge Platform of 1648, that a pastor has a negative upon the proceedings of the church. Some ministers, who embraced his principles, lost by consequence their parishes. He preached the Dudleian lecture on Presbyterian ordination in 1794. He published a sermon on the nature, pleasures, and advantages of church music, 1771; on Christian unity, 1772; the election sermon, 1782; on April 19, 1783; at the ordination of Enoch Whipple, 1788.

Sources

*Allen, William. ''An American Biographical and Historical Dictionary: Containing an Account of the Lives, Characters, and Writings of the Most Eminent Persons in North America From Its First Settlement, and a Summary of the History of the Several Colonies and of the United States''. 2nd ed. Boston: Hyde, 1832. {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Zabdiel 1739 births 1801 deaths American Christian theologians American Christian clergy American religious writers Harvard University alumni 18th-century Christian clergy American sermon writers People from Lunenburg, Massachusetts Massachusetts colonial-era clergy People from colonial Massachusetts